Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Talk of the bay: Before rate cut, a hefty increase for nationwide

By Times Staff
Published March 31, 2007

Nationwide, like all property insurers, will be cutting rates this year to meet new state regulations. But first comes a substantial rate hike. Based on a filing that took eight months to wind through the halls of Tallahassee, Nationwide got permission Friday to raise rates a statewide average of 54 percent this year. That's shy of the 71.4 percent hike the company requested. The percentages vary, but policyholders in coastal counties like Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando can expect far larger increases. "We've never been a big fan of arbitration," said Office of Insurance Regulation spokesman Bob Lotane. The arbitration process, which gives insurers a chance to have a panel decide new rates, has been suspended until 2009. But Nationwide had begun the process before the suspension was enacted. The fifth-largest property insurer in Florida with about 40,000 policies in the Tampa Bay area, Nationwide will implement the new rates this summer.

In short order, Outback boss out

Well, that was fast. Three months after being named president of the Outback Steakhouse chain, Curt Glowacki has resigned for "personal reasons." The former CEO of Mexican Restaurants Inc., a seven-chain Dallas company, had joined Tampa's Outback in December. Paul Avery, OSI Restaurant Partners Inc.'s chief operating officer, will once again fill the vacant Outback slot on an interim basis. OSI shareholders will vote April 25 on a $40-per-share offer to take the company private.

Egg hunt poised to crack world record

Cypress Gardens is making a run at the world's biggest Easter egg hunt at 3 p.m. Sunday. The Winter Haven theme park verified to Guinness World Records that it has more than 500,000 plastic eggs to deploy over the lawn around the park's Magnolia Mansion and topiary garden. That's enough to shatter the existing record of 301,000. Kids younger than 14 in three age groups must pay for a day's park admission to participate and be accompanied by an adult. Most of the eggs come loaded with a piece of candy or a small prize. One contains a two-year scholarship to Polk County Community College.

[Last modified March 30, 2007, 22:55:04]